Site discount - good start
Sponsorship (Or support) - The big question - what do you have to offer the sponsor?
Free sponsorship is a rare beast, and comes with obligations
Better discounts are available, but again what do you have to offer. The ability to show a membership base, and a reason other than discount for preferring the supplier will go a long way to show that providing you with a discount will generare trade using that discount. Advertising by using equipment is not a good reason to support your case - there is a conflict of interest to give your customer base a discount, you spend less money on what you were willing to buy any way. If its a consumable item then its more viable as you are a repeat customer, as opposed to the primary equipment requirements - unless buying in bulk, or at least as a number of individuals forming the team.
Transport - this points to a potential alternative method of sponsorship/support. Go to those who can provide transport and see what arrangements you can come to, the university may not fund but may have transport available, local businesses may like the idea of supporting a club in the university.
People using university paintball societies just for the discount - Don't let this be an issue, use it as a benefit. They either join you and pay the same dues as anyone else - giving the club more VFM from their dues if they only place once, or organise trips and charge non-members a little more.
The university / students union won't look favourably on a club thats trying to form, seeking support and funding, but not welcoming casual students. You never know, the person who wants to play once may get the bug, every player starts somewhere. *
Kit to get players to the next level (define 'next level') - This is a tricky one - paintball is not cheap, but you can practice drills etc for free, you don't get to proove you can hit your target or have the fear of being hit if you are not firing anything but saving on firing paint is a big saving in practice.
You do not need better equipment for better skills, the chances are you won't progress far in a tournament with basic rental blowbacks, but you also won't get far in an organised tournament without the funds for a days worth of paint. You can practice on any paintball site, you don't need better equipment to get yourself going, and dont have to have inflatables to play speedball. What you can do is make the best of the site equipment available, and impress people at how well you are progressing with that. Then start pushing for sponsorship/support, not only in paintball, but again a local business might want to be seen supporting a fledgling university team.
There is the option of a loan to the club, however would the students union/university or anyone else regard the club as a good debt risk and this changes from worries of having enough funds to worries of having to pay back a loan with the 'assets' depriciating fast and the loan not being a solution to the problem in the first place.
Students are not in poverty - they are not financially well off, however university fees cost money, accommodation and food cost money, 'educational resources' such as books, computers, printers, paper etc all cost money. By definition a university student has money one way or another. Students can get funding, they can get part time work (during the course or in the summer etc) A student loan is money that has to be paid back, but unlike other loans you dont pay back until you have some income. Every student has to balance their budget and balance their time. Work too long to earn more money and you damage the education/experience that you went to university for, don't relax and you also damage that education/experience.
Prioritise the available money - it is the same thing as real life, if students cannot afford to do what they want then they cannot go ahead with it. Many people would like to progress their paintball to the next level, but no matter what it takes time and money. If the time and money are not there then it won't happen, if they are there, prioritised and balanced then it will happen.
What if 'keen student A' buys their own gear, but 'keen student B' does not and wants the club gear? Are 'student As' club dues going into the club to subsidise 'student B'? what about next year when all the 'student As' leave university and the club only has half the gear to support the 'student As' still and all the new 'student Bs'?
* Freshers week etc.
Look at what can be done to promote the club. You can get the support of the local site etc, but can do other things to show the club and potential. Have passionate people there (I have helped out SUPC a few times at freshers week and at other events)
To get guns on the university site (and to do anything on the university site) means going through the student union and the university iteself. Have a plan, risk assessments etc. Have some things up your sleeves to tone it down or take a step further depending on how it goes when presenting things.
One event at Southampton was a reball firing range.
The goal was to promote the paintball element of the 'Paintball & airsoft society', and recruit new prospective members - paintball or airsoft.
Nets and pop ups were supplied by the local site, a sealed firing range was put up in one of the halls, targets were shot at and not people, the combined airsofters & paintballers both helped out, the support of an experienced 'event organiser' was there to help the case of getting the event authorised (me), other university societies were included in discussions, risk assessments and advice was shared. Numerous types of people came to watch or have a go - including the archer who remarked that it would be better if you could shoot paintballs from bows - to which I told him he could (at great impact to his student loan - he left with the plan to get a summer job and buy an AirBow) and the German who told me he 'didn't like guns', followed by 'but I love shooting'!
Another was the last freshers fair. (I was invited to help out at the previous freshers fair but the date was no good to me)
This time the goal was not only to recruit prospective members from the freshers, but to promote speedball and have enough members to put together a team to compete with other universities and play at general tournaments.
Being the freshers fair the setup was different, just one table (actually 2 as the paintball & airsoft societies are now 2 seperate societies that co-operate, buy one society, get one free) and only a matter of seconds to grab the interest of passing freshers.
So - guns allowed and (empty) air systems, an allowance for one potential dry firing in a presentation. Laptops with video presentations were allowed, but the use of power was withdrawn so the laptops didn't get used - they could have been run for a while, but it was chosen not ot bother as they would run out of charge or need alternative power.
With the two societies there were two chances to catch people, and with double sided flyers a number of interested students had already read up on paintball by the time they got around.
Due to convenient alphabetical placement the paintball society was beside a corner between netball & pole fitness.
The placement gave us a good spot to catch peoples attention. You could have thought that this would result in lots of male students hanging around, however I was signing up mainly female students - the guys were either interested or they were not, girls may have clearly been disinterested and there were those clearly interested. But out of the 'maybes' and quite a few giggles when I proposed paintball to them a combination of my stunning good looks and passion for paintballl persuaded them that paintballs not just for guys, the dicks are not tolerated, and at the very least if you are going to experience paintball once in your life then you should take advantage of the club:
e.g. The real cost of paintball not being a £9.99 ticket, add on booking fees if its an IPG ticket, and paint on the day
The paintball clubs upcoming taster day - non commited paintball at a discounted rate, with transport from the university
Or if you miss the taster day and at any time in the year feel like trying paintball then join for £x, pay to play for £y and make a saving of £z - or the two of you go share 1,000 paintballs and save more. PS do it sooner then later and if you find out you like it then you can make the most of club opportunities.
The results were one student runnning away from me saying I'm brain-washing him, some photos of the pole fitness girls hanging upside down with paintball guns, a netball in my eye, >1000 names on the mailing list, one person paying their dues on the same night (the first time in known club history), the formation of a speedball team, and 3 or 4 girls who must have father figure issues looking forward to 'playing paintball' with me, and a club chairman panicing about the taster possibly being too successful.
Sponsorship (Or support) - The big question - what do you have to offer the sponsor?
Free sponsorship is a rare beast, and comes with obligations
Better discounts are available, but again what do you have to offer. The ability to show a membership base, and a reason other than discount for preferring the supplier will go a long way to show that providing you with a discount will generare trade using that discount. Advertising by using equipment is not a good reason to support your case - there is a conflict of interest to give your customer base a discount, you spend less money on what you were willing to buy any way. If its a consumable item then its more viable as you are a repeat customer, as opposed to the primary equipment requirements - unless buying in bulk, or at least as a number of individuals forming the team.
Transport - this points to a potential alternative method of sponsorship/support. Go to those who can provide transport and see what arrangements you can come to, the university may not fund but may have transport available, local businesses may like the idea of supporting a club in the university.
People using university paintball societies just for the discount - Don't let this be an issue, use it as a benefit. They either join you and pay the same dues as anyone else - giving the club more VFM from their dues if they only place once, or organise trips and charge non-members a little more.
The university / students union won't look favourably on a club thats trying to form, seeking support and funding, but not welcoming casual students. You never know, the person who wants to play once may get the bug, every player starts somewhere. *
Kit to get players to the next level (define 'next level') - This is a tricky one - paintball is not cheap, but you can practice drills etc for free, you don't get to proove you can hit your target or have the fear of being hit if you are not firing anything but saving on firing paint is a big saving in practice.
You do not need better equipment for better skills, the chances are you won't progress far in a tournament with basic rental blowbacks, but you also won't get far in an organised tournament without the funds for a days worth of paint. You can practice on any paintball site, you don't need better equipment to get yourself going, and dont have to have inflatables to play speedball. What you can do is make the best of the site equipment available, and impress people at how well you are progressing with that. Then start pushing for sponsorship/support, not only in paintball, but again a local business might want to be seen supporting a fledgling university team.
There is the option of a loan to the club, however would the students union/university or anyone else regard the club as a good debt risk and this changes from worries of having enough funds to worries of having to pay back a loan with the 'assets' depriciating fast and the loan not being a solution to the problem in the first place.
Students are not in poverty - they are not financially well off, however university fees cost money, accommodation and food cost money, 'educational resources' such as books, computers, printers, paper etc all cost money. By definition a university student has money one way or another. Students can get funding, they can get part time work (during the course or in the summer etc) A student loan is money that has to be paid back, but unlike other loans you dont pay back until you have some income. Every student has to balance their budget and balance their time. Work too long to earn more money and you damage the education/experience that you went to university for, don't relax and you also damage that education/experience.
Prioritise the available money - it is the same thing as real life, if students cannot afford to do what they want then they cannot go ahead with it. Many people would like to progress their paintball to the next level, but no matter what it takes time and money. If the time and money are not there then it won't happen, if they are there, prioritised and balanced then it will happen.
What if 'keen student A' buys their own gear, but 'keen student B' does not and wants the club gear? Are 'student As' club dues going into the club to subsidise 'student B'? what about next year when all the 'student As' leave university and the club only has half the gear to support the 'student As' still and all the new 'student Bs'?
* Freshers week etc.
Look at what can be done to promote the club. You can get the support of the local site etc, but can do other things to show the club and potential. Have passionate people there (I have helped out SUPC a few times at freshers week and at other events)
To get guns on the university site (and to do anything on the university site) means going through the student union and the university iteself. Have a plan, risk assessments etc. Have some things up your sleeves to tone it down or take a step further depending on how it goes when presenting things.
One event at Southampton was a reball firing range.
The goal was to promote the paintball element of the 'Paintball & airsoft society', and recruit new prospective members - paintball or airsoft.
Nets and pop ups were supplied by the local site, a sealed firing range was put up in one of the halls, targets were shot at and not people, the combined airsofters & paintballers both helped out, the support of an experienced 'event organiser' was there to help the case of getting the event authorised (me), other university societies were included in discussions, risk assessments and advice was shared. Numerous types of people came to watch or have a go - including the archer who remarked that it would be better if you could shoot paintballs from bows - to which I told him he could (at great impact to his student loan - he left with the plan to get a summer job and buy an AirBow) and the German who told me he 'didn't like guns', followed by 'but I love shooting'!
Another was the last freshers fair. (I was invited to help out at the previous freshers fair but the date was no good to me)
This time the goal was not only to recruit prospective members from the freshers, but to promote speedball and have enough members to put together a team to compete with other universities and play at general tournaments.
Being the freshers fair the setup was different, just one table (actually 2 as the paintball & airsoft societies are now 2 seperate societies that co-operate, buy one society, get one free) and only a matter of seconds to grab the interest of passing freshers.
So - guns allowed and (empty) air systems, an allowance for one potential dry firing in a presentation. Laptops with video presentations were allowed, but the use of power was withdrawn so the laptops didn't get used - they could have been run for a while, but it was chosen not ot bother as they would run out of charge or need alternative power.
With the two societies there were two chances to catch people, and with double sided flyers a number of interested students had already read up on paintball by the time they got around.
Due to convenient alphabetical placement the paintball society was beside a corner between netball & pole fitness.
The placement gave us a good spot to catch peoples attention. You could have thought that this would result in lots of male students hanging around, however I was signing up mainly female students - the guys were either interested or they were not, girls may have clearly been disinterested and there were those clearly interested. But out of the 'maybes' and quite a few giggles when I proposed paintball to them a combination of my stunning good looks and passion for paintballl persuaded them that paintballs not just for guys, the dicks are not tolerated, and at the very least if you are going to experience paintball once in your life then you should take advantage of the club:
e.g. The real cost of paintball not being a £9.99 ticket, add on booking fees if its an IPG ticket, and paint on the day
The paintball clubs upcoming taster day - non commited paintball at a discounted rate, with transport from the university
Or if you miss the taster day and at any time in the year feel like trying paintball then join for £x, pay to play for £y and make a saving of £z - or the two of you go share 1,000 paintballs and save more. PS do it sooner then later and if you find out you like it then you can make the most of club opportunities.
The results were one student runnning away from me saying I'm brain-washing him, some photos of the pole fitness girls hanging upside down with paintball guns, a netball in my eye, >1000 names on the mailing list, one person paying their dues on the same night (the first time in known club history), the formation of a speedball team, and 3 or 4 girls who must have father figure issues looking forward to 'playing paintball' with me, and a club chairman panicing about the taster possibly being too successful.